1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the general art of hand tools, and to the particular field of hand tools relating to elements which are driven into a substrate.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Hardware, such as hinges, templates, plates and the like are often mounted on a substrate such as a wall, door, door jamb, window jamb, window blind mounting hardware, cabinet mounting hardware, or the like. The hardware is often mounted using self-tapping screws or like elements. Some such hardware is mounted after a hole has been drilled in a desired location using a drill bit. Often, the hardware is located in difficult-to-reach locations.
Mounting such hardware often requires driving the mounting elements or a drill bit into the substrate using either a hand-powered tool, such as a screwdriver, or a power tool. Often, it requires two hands to drive the mounting element or drill bit into the substrate. One hand must be used to hold the element in place while the other hand is used to provide the power and/or force to actually drive the element into the substrate. This can be awkward, especially if the hardware is located in a difficult-to-reach location.
Therefore, there is a need for an appliance that can be used to facilitate the process of mounting hardware.
One problem with effecting such hardware mounting is associated with the driven element moving away from the desired target area just as force is applied to drive the element into the substrate. This problem can cause hardware to be mounted away from the desired location, or in some instances, actually prevent the hardware from being properly mounted. Skilled craftsmen have learned how to compensate for this problem, but unskilled individuals may have considerable difficulty and experience considerable frustration, due to this problem. Even skilled craftsmen sometimes have difficulty with this problem.
One way of dealing with this problem is to drive a nail or a punch into the substrate at the desired location by using a hammer or other such instrument. This method defines a starter hole or leading hole for the element, but requires two hands which may be difficult or cumbersome in many situations. Even then, the initial leading hole must be properly positioned with respect to the element-accommodating bore in the hardware. Thus, even if it is somewhat convenient to drive a punch into a substrate using a hammer to define the starting location for a hardware-mounting element, the exact location of that leading hole within the mounting element-accommodating bore of the hardware may have to be estimated. A skilled craftsman may be adept at this, but unskilled individuals may have difficulty.
Therefore, there is a need for a hand tool which can easily define a starter location for hardware-mounting elements and which will automatically properly locate that starter location.
Similar problems occur when a hole is to be drilled into a substrate. A drill bit may “walk” away from the desired location as the drill is activated thereby locating the drilled hole in an undesired location. This “walking” problem is generally accounted for by using a starter location as discussed above, but the problems associated with defining such a starter location for a drill bit are similar to those discussed above. Thus, it is to be understood that when reference is made to a mounting element, a drill bit will be included in such a term.
As there are many different types of hardware, any tool that is to be used to mount such hardware should be as versatile as possible. This will allow a user to easily apply the tool to a variety of jobs without requiring special adapter elements or without requiring the user to adapt special procedures.
Therefore, there is a need for a versatile hand tool which is used to define a starter location for hardware-mounting elements.